BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                          SB 570
                                                          Page  1

Date of Hearing:   July 7, 1999

              ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 
                    Carole Migden, Chairwoman

             SB 570 (Alarcon) - As Amended: 4/27/99 

Policy Committee:                              Public  
SafetyVote:  6-0

Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local  
Program:YesReimbursable:          Yes

  SUMMARY  :

This bill increases penalties for disrupting or threatening  
school personnel on school grounds.  Specifically, this bill: 

1)Creates a 1, 2, or 3-year sentence enhancement for  
  communicating a threat against a principal, teacher, school  
  board member, or other school personnel. 

1)Increases the penalty for interfering with any school activity  
  - by anyone over 16 years of age - as follows:

   a)   For a first conviction, a person can be fined a minimum  
     of $500 and/or jailed for up to one year.  (Current law  
     sets the minimum fine at $100 and/or jail time for up to  
     six months.) 

   b)   For a second conviction, a person can be fined $1,000  
     and must serve at least 10 days, up to one year.

   c)   Upon a third conviction, a person can be fined for  
     $1,000 and must serve at least 90 days, up to a year.

1)Authorizes the court to grant probation or suspend the  
  sentence.

1)Increases the penalty for any parent or guardian who disrupts  
  classwork or extracurricular activities.  The penalties would  
  be similar to the scheme in 1), above. 

1)States legislative intent that teachers, administrators, and  
  aides report missing children to a law enforcement agency in a  








                                                          SB 570
                                                          Page  2

  timely manner.

  FISCAL EFFECT :

Unknown GF costs, potentially in excess of $200,000.  In  
1997-98, 513 persons were committed to state prison for  
terrorist threats.  If two percent of this number made threats  
against school personnel, annual costs would be about $220,000  
beginning in one or two years when the enhancement would begin,  
increasing annually for three years to the extent offenders  
received a two or three-year enhancement.
  

COMMENTS  :

  1)Rationale.  According to the author, "recent incidents have  
  shown us that all too often violence is used or threatened  
  when conflicts arise at schools.  A principal in my district  
  was recently beaten and another threatened.  This bill  
  increases penalties against those who bring violence to school  
  campuses and sends the message that violence in our schools  
  will not be tolerated."

  1)Should threats against school personnel result in longer  
  sentences than threats against other persons?   As noted in the  
  Public Safety Committee analysis, the author refers to a  
  principal who was beaten. That crime, however, could be  
  prosecuted as a felony under current law and the offender sent  
  to prison for three, four, or five years. If the attacker  
  inflicted great bodily injury, the penalty could be enhanced  
  by three additional years in prison under current law. Is the  
  aggressive use of current law by prosecutors insufficient?
 

Analysis Prepared by:    Geoff Long/ APPR. / (916) 319-2081